For any property you own, you must ensure you have at least the following documents. Anything missing will become a hindrance when you try to sell it. As a matter of fact, a majority of secondary sale transactions fall through, as the buyer's lawyer is usually not satisfied with the property documents.

• Registered Sale Deed (Original version): This is the agreement you signed with the previous owner at the Registrar’s office. The sale deed is the agreement which specifies the terms of purchase of any real estate transaction. It describes the transfer of right, title and ownership of Property by a Seller to a Purchaser and the corresponding a price and terms of payment. It specifies the details of dual ownership, joint ownership rights, and all the commercial details of the purchase, the seller and the buyer. The registration of the sale deed typically occurs in the Sub-Registrar's office wherein the property is located, so the deed has the signature of all parties and stamp of the Registrar.
• Agreement to Sell (or Sale Agreement) (Original): This is the agreement you would have signed prior to the Registration when you paid a booking amount to the seller. The agreement serves as a promise that the transfer of property ownership will occur within a stipulated time frame. Unlike the sale deed, it is not signed at the Registrar’s office. It is signed on non-judicial stamp paper.
• State-specific land record document (Original): Every state has their own additional document to maintain land records. In the city limits of Bangalore, this is referred to as Khata. These are 2 documents - Khata certificate and Khata extract. In fact, we have a separate chapter on this in the Course Guide to Buying a Property in India. Very often these state specific records are written in the local language. This is the document you should have applied for post the registration of the property.
• Proof of payments for the property: This includes all the details of the home loan (if any) and also the down payment details. This is also called OCR (Own contribution Receipt).
• Property Tax Receipts: Property owners have to pay taxes as we have already covered in an earlier chapter. These receipts also go a long way in helping prove a property’s legal status, so you should maintain your property tax receipts.
• Documents you received from the previous owner during property registration:
  • Prior Deed. This is the Sale deed of the previous owner. He would have given you a copy and you should have a registered version of this (which can be gotten from the Registrar’s office). Once the property is sold to a new buyer and registered, any previous Sale Deed is referred to as a “Prior deed.”
  • Registered Mother Deed: Mother deed is the document that traces the origin of property as well as all other relevant conveyance deeds. It starts with documenting the sale of the land in which the property is built. The term ‘Mother deeds’ also refers to all the documents tracing all transactions starting with this mother deed (land documents) until the property was sold to the current owner(s).
  • State-specific land record document of the previous owner (Original). This is also a document you should take from the previous owner and keep with you.
  • Encumbrance Certificates: An Encumbrance certificate is a document that contains a record of transactions between a start date and end date. When you apply for an EC you need to provide the dates for which you want the same. The EC will also contain details of any loan taken against the property in that period, and/or any loan outstanding in that period. Thus an EC is used to prove that the property does not have any pending legal dues. In most areas, the EC may be obtained by applying for it via a form at the Sub-Registrar's office. However, some states now allow for the same to be dispatched through online portals. To get it online, the seller/buyer will have to supply the property’s survey number (found on the sale deed), and the owner’s name. As part of the sale process, you would have applied for the EC on multiple occasions, and you should have these with you.

In the event you have an active home loan for your property, most of the above documents will be with the bank. You should ensure that you have a written confirmation from the bank, with all the documents in their possession.